Job-Plan Funding Cuts Challenged in Congress

Washington--Congressional leaders last week said they oppose the
Administration's proposal to eliminate the $617-million Job Corps,
which provides training for disadvantaged youths as part of the Job
Training Partnership Act.

The lawmakers also attacked the overall package of cuts proposed for
the jtpa, which includes the Job Corps and is the federal government's
principal employment-training program.

Senator Lowell P. Weicker, Republican of Connecticut, chairman of
the panel that approves the program's funding, argued forcefully
against eliminating the Job Corps, which is part of the jtpa, saying
its benefits to society far outweigh its costs.

But Undersecretary of Labor Ford B. Ford told the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and
Education that the Job Corps "can no longer be justified in light of
the relatively low completion and job-placement rates and high
costs."

Mr. Ford said the cost for each person trained under the program is
about $15,000 annually. Senator Weicker, however, disputed that figure,
claiming that the cost is closer to $5,000 to $6,000 per person.

Reduction Request

The Job Corps places youths, ages 16 to 21, in residential work
programs away from their local neighborhood. It serves the
"hard-core"3unemployed, who have had problems with drugs or crime. A
recent study showed that 38 percent of the Job Corps participants had
arrest records.

The other youth programs under the jtpa provide only nonresidential
training; and unlike its predecessor, the Comprehensive Employment and
Training Act, the jtpa does not provide stipends to participants.

The Labor Department is requesting a total of $2.8 billion for the
jtpa in fiscal 1986; the Congress has appropriated about $3.6 billion
for the program in each of the past two years.

The department is also requesting a $255-million cut in fiscal 1985,
already approved by the Congress.

Impact on Programs

The major reductions sought by the Labor Department in the 1986
budget will affect the jtpa's summer youth-employment and training
program and assistance program for dislocated workers, as well as the
Jobs Corps.

The 1986 budget calls for $664.5 million for the summer youth
program, down from $824 million appropriated by the Congress last year.
The cut would mean the program would serve about 700,000 youths,
120,000 fewer than this year, Mr. Ford said. The dislocated-worker
program would receive $100 million, down from the 1985 level of $222
million.

The department is also requesting a freeze on the $1.9 billion
reserved for Title IIA, which serves the eco-nomically disadvantaged.
In the past two years, some 40 percent of that money went to youths
between the ages of 16 and 21.

Patrick J. O'Keefe, deputy assistant secretary of labor for
employment and training, told the committee that approximately 2.2
million participants will be served by the 1986 request, 146,000 fewer
than in 1985.

Weicker Opposes Cuts

Senator Weicker quoted a study by Mathematica Policy Research which
showed that for every $1 spent on the Job Corps, the program yields
$1.45 in funds society will not have to pay in welfare, prison, or
health costs.

"What worries me so much ... is that whatever budget savings there
are this year, there will be [later] costs that will be staggering," he
said.

Senator Weicker also noted that the Job Corps and jtpa serve
different purposes and "draw from two different universes. The Job
Corps is a cut below the jtpa," serving primarily disadvantaged youths
with drug or alcohol problems or criminal records, he said.

Mr. Ford said the request for a decrease in jtpa funds is due to
both a drop in the general youth population and a decline in youth
unemployment.

But Senator Weicker argued that although the unemployment in the
general youth population has dropped, the unemployment rate for blacks
and Hispanics, who make up a large proportion of those served under the
jtpa, has increased.

According to January unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 42.1 percent of black teen-agers between the ages of 16 and
19 were unemployed, and 15.8 percent of white teen-agers in the same
age group were without work.

The bureau had no figures specifically for Hispanic teen-agers but
reported that 10.6 percent of Hispanics over the age of 16 were
unemployed. The national unemployment rate for all teen-agers was 18.9
percent.

House Hearings

Hearings on the House side also focused on the jtpa, with a number
of witnesses testifying against reduction of funds for the program.

Gov. Richard F. Celeste of Ohio, speaking for the National
Governors' Association, told the House Education and Labor Committee
that the jtpa is a "flagship piece of legislation in that it
appropriately sorts out the roles of the different actors within the
employment and training system."

Governor Celeste said one of the criticisms frequently leveled at
the jtpa is that outlays for the program have been slow to begin. But
he attributed the lag to "concern about starting up a new program and
doing it right. ..."

Governor Celeste also called for saving the Job Corps, saying it is
''a valuable tool that should not be abandoned."

Opposition to cutting the two programs was also voiced by the
committee's chairman, Representative Augustus F. Hawkins, Democrat of
California.

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